


A Change in Scenery

by Weltatlas



Category: Alex Verus Series - Benedict Jacka
Genre: Bodyswap, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mentions of kidnapping, Minor Original Character(s), One Shot, accidental bodyswap, but it's not that important, reluctant allies, theoretically takes place between hidden and veiled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 10:08:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30037077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weltatlas/pseuds/Weltatlas
Summary: Suddenly, Alex’s racing thoughts were brought to a halt by the glimpse of an impossible future. No, this couldn’t be real. As if on autopilot he got up from the bed, stumbled into the bathroom and turned the light on, freezing on the spot when he saw his reflection in the mirror. It wasn’t his face staring back at him with an expression of shock. It was Morden’s.Alex and Morden accidentally swap bodies and have to work together to reverse it.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7





	A Change in Scenery

All in all it had been a very successful mission, Morden concluded as he surveyed the magical items that had been acquired. If his newest apprentice continued to impress him like this, he might actually consider making him his Chosen. But that was a decision to be carefully made at a later date. For now he had to sort through the items, determining which were useful enough to keep and which he would simply sell on. Most items were classified rather easily, and he was making good headway, until he came across one whose purpose he couldn’t discern.

He picked up the medallion and turned it in his hands but was still unable to identify its magical signature. It appeared to be made of solid gold and was engraved with small symbols that had been artfully carved into the metal and which Morden didn’t recognise. Opening the medallion didn’t reveal any clues about its use either, besides the tarnished mirror lining the insides there was nothing contained within. Grabbed by curiosity, he channelled his magic into the item and waited. 

Nothing happened.

Morden closed the medallion and placed it on the ‘to be sold on’ pile.

~~~

_Eight years later._

All in all Alex was very happy with the items he’d acquired at the auction. The late owner had been an avid collector of magical items, even though she had been a Sensitive and therefore unable to make use of them herself. Her children hadn’t known what to do with the odd objects they’d inherited and decided to auction them off – luckily one of Alex’s contacts had informed him just in time to gather the money. Given that none of the other bidders had been aware of the items’ true worth, he’d even had enough to buy a lot more than originally intended.

Back in his shop he set the heavy box down on the workbench and began to catalogue the items. Most of them were rather common one-shots, but a few were significantly more interesting and valuable, some even quite rare. There also was a golden medallion covered in unfamiliar symbols, which Alex couldn’t place. Finding no danger in any of the immediate futures, he picked it up and opened it. Instead of pictures or something similar there were two mirrors inside, in one of which he spotted the reflection of a person. Looking closer he tried to make out details, but the mirror was too tarnished by old age to see more beyond a shadowy outline.

Curious, he carefully channelled magic into the item.

Nothing happened.

Alex shrugged, closed the medallion, and turned to the next item.

~~~

Alex awoke with a jolt, and in his disoriented state it took him a moment to realise what had interrupted his sleep so rudely. The blaring of the alarm clock rung in his ears, and he blindly grasped for it, instinctively following the future that promised to put a stop to the unbearable noise. Finally, he managed to shut it off and fell back into the bed, ready to roll over and continue sleeping. Then he remembered that he did not own a digital alarm clock.

His eyes flew open, and he suddenly felt wide awake as he looked around. This wasn’t his bed. It was bigger, and the sheets felt a lot smoother than the ones he’d fallen asleep in last night. Sitting up he realised that he didn’t only find himself in a strange bed but that the entire room was unfamiliar –elegantly furnished, very tidy, and much more spacious than his own bedroom. Divination revealed that one of the doors would lead to a walk-in closet filled with neatly arranged, expensive looking clothes, another to an adjacent bathroom. 

Alex’s mind raced, what the hell was going on? Not only had he woken up in this weird place, but something about his body felt off as well. Had he been drugged and kidnapped? He wasn’t even wearing his usual sleep clothes but a silk pyjama. Bile rose in his throat when he realised that someone must have redressed him while he’d been unconscious. Looking down at his hands he frowned, they appeared oddly smaller than usual, and he couldn’t remember his nails having ever been this perfectly manicured. He felt weird. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

A look out of the window would reveal a large garden, nestled in a beautiful landscape of woods and rolling hills. Alex swallowed; it was hauntingly familiar. Pathwalking out of the room and through the corridors beyond confirmed his suspicion, he’d involuntarily stayed in this house a few years ago already. But what in the world did Morden want from him now? Had he really not even tried to ask Alex first and just skipped straight to abduction this time? Was Richard involved too?

Suddenly, his racing thoughts were brought to a halt by the glimpse of an impossible future. No, this couldn’t be real. As if on autopilot he got up from the bed, stumbled into the bathroom and turned the light on, freezing on the spot when he saw his reflection in the mirror. It wasn’t his face staring back at him with an expression of shock. It was Morden’s. 

His hands shook slightly as he touched his face, trying to find out whether what he saw was actually real. It couldn’t be, it just couldn’t be… and yet what he felt under his fingertips undeniably matched the impossible reflection in the mirror. Looking down at himself he slowly realised that it wasn’t just his face that had changed, but the rest of his body as well. He was smaller and not as lanky or muscular as before, but still well proportioned. There was no denying it; somehow he had turned into Morden. 

No, that didn’t seem entirely correct either. He thought of the strange place he’d woken up in, the changed clothes, the fact that this bedroom didn’t seem like one for guests at all… Realisation hit him. He didn’t just look like Morden. He _was_ Morden.

Or well, he inhabited his body, at least. Mentally he was himself, and he still had his magic as well. Under different circumstances the discovery that a person’s magic was closer connected to their mind than their body would have been interesting, but at the moment there were more pressing issues to think about. If he was in Morden’s body now, then what had happened to his own body? And where was Morden? 

There was only one conclusion Alex could draw: they must have switched bodies.

How the hell had that happened?

Had Morden done this? He must have, after all Alex certainly hadn’t done anything. But why would Morden do something like this? What did he gain from inhabiting Alex’s body? There was no benefit to being him. Sure, he had connections to the Keepers and other less important people, but there would be much better ways to get to those that didn’t involve personally swapping bodies with him. No, there was no way Morden would have done this on purpose, the risk of giving Alex control of his body and leaving him alone in his house was way too high. 

Had it been an accident, then? Maybe Morden had tried to do something else, but whatever spell or ritual he’d used had misfired massively. Alex had no idea what Morden’s original goal could have been and how it had come to this mishap, but this theory made the most sense to him at the moment. Before he could think any further, a rapidly nearing future demanded his attention. Someone was coming.

He left the bathroom and waited next to the bed, running through the possible interactions he could see ahead. As much as he hated it, for now it would be for the best if he acted as much like Morden as possible so that no one else would notice what was going on. There was a hesitant knock at the door and Alex steeled himself.

“Yes?” he said and cringed at the strange voice coming out of his mouth. He sounded just like Morden.

“Will you be having breakfast later than usual today, Master?” a woman asked. If Alex asked for her name, she would be very perplexed and tell him that it was Selene.

Alex hated the way she addressed him, but pushed his discomfort aside and said, “No, I just overslept a little, sorry. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Alright,” Selene said after a brief moment of silence, and Alex didn't know which part of what he'd said confused her – that he'd overslept or the apology. “I’ll make sure to re-heat everything, then.”

Alex almost wanted to tell her not to bother for his sake but caught himself in time. “Yes, please do that. Thank you.”

“Of course, Master.”

Alex breathed out a sigh of relief when she left. Pretending to be Morden wouldn’t be fun, but at least his divination made things a lot easier. He didn’t even want to image how Morden must be faring in his body. The thought of another person controlling his body made his skin crawl, and that person being _Morden_ of all people certainly didn’t help. He had to fix this. But first he would need to get dressed. 

Sadly, Morden wasn’t one of those people that laid out their clothes for the next day in the evening, and so Alex entered the walk-in closet and contemplated the numerous options. Everything looked pristine and expensive, the items were sorted by type and colour, and there was a lot choose from. Short, he felt a little overwhelmed. And that didn’t even touch the biggest issue. 

He eyed the dressing gown on the hanger in front of him and seriously considered just wearing it over the silk pyjama for breakfast... But that too would only delay the actual problem. Sooner or later he would have to put on proper clothes – and undress. Something about exposing Morden’s body without him even being in the room felt horribly wrong, and he really didn’t want to think of how his own body was in the same position at the moment.

From the smell of soap on his skin he concluded that Morden had showered the night before, which meant that he could at least skip that step and minimize the awkwardness. He picked a set of clothes similar to what he’d seen Morden wear before, dark trousers and a black shirt, as well as a pair of polished dress shoes. For socks and underwear he just grabbed the first ones he saw in the drawers. Well, there was no point in stalling. He stripped efficiently, trying his best to look away and not touch more than strictly necessary. 

The clothes fitted as well as only bespoke tailoring did, and Alex had to admit that they felt very nice. With the worst part out of the way, he went back into the bathroom, took a wooden hairbrush from one of the drawers and set on to style his hair. It was very fine and soft and quickly began to shine under the ministrations of the brush. Other people’s hairstyles weren’t something Alex paid much attention to, and so he wasn’t sure how accurate his attempt at Morden’s style was. In case anyone remarked upon it, he’d just claim that he was trying something new – and well, it did look good in his eyes. 

He smiled and couldn’t suppress a shiver, that expression had been way too close to what he’d seen on Morden before. Seeing himself like this felt strange and alienating, he constantly had to remind himself that the person in the mirror really was him. He experimentally scrunched his face and snorted at how silly it looked on Morden. Unable to hold back he tried out more and more ridiculous grimaces, soon laughing at the Dark mage’s expense. His laugh did sound nice, though.

A quiet _ping_ attracted his attention when he returned to the bedroom, and he spotted a black smartphone on the bedside table. He picked it up and made quick work of divining the passcode to unlock the screen, briefly wondering whether the four digits represented Morden’s birthday. He opened the calendar notification. _Meeting,_ it read, _Fuegis, 9 AM, Coimbra._ Alex groaned, that was just what he’d needed in this situation. Of course Morden had made plans for the day, and if he didn’t adhere to them it could attract unwanted attention. 

It was almost 8 o’clock already, which didn’t leave him much time to find out what the meeting would be about. Maybe there was something on Morden’s phone that could help him? Grabbed by curiosity he began to look through it – and was surprised by the banality of what he found. There didn’t seem to be anything relevant to Morden’s plans or messages discussing secrets, nothing on it indicated that this phone belonged to one of the most powerful Dark mages.

The only pictures on the camera roll were photos of the garden and the surrounding landscape, all private messages seemed trivial, most of the open tabs were online newspapers, and the search history revealed nothing more interesting than an obscure taste in music. It was disappointing, though not necessarily unexpected. Morden wasn’t stupid, of course he wouldn’t leave critical information on a device that could be stolen or hacked. Still, it would have made Alex’s life easier. Oh well, he had no way of getting to the meeting location anyways; unlike Morden he couldn’t gate. 

He pocketed the phone and left the room. On the way to the dining room he used his divination to search the rest of the mansion but wasn’t able to find any clues concerning what could have caused the body swap. Selene and a blonde woman were waiting for him in the dining room, and Alex made sure to adjust his posture and walk with the same confidence as Morden always did. 

“Good morning,” he said and accepted the returned greetings with a nod. 

If Selene was upset that he’d taken longer than the ten minutes he’d promised, she didn’t show it, and Alex didn’t apologise again. He sat down at the head of the table without sparing them another glance and gave nothing more than a short thanks when the blonde woman – Lisa – poured him tea. Trying to act as natural as possible he began to eat and internally commended Selene for turning out such a perfectly done full breakfast despite his chaotic scheduling. There was another plate to his right, which he assumed was for Onyx. 

The food was delicious, and yet he couldn’t quite enjoy it. Having two people stand silently at the wall behind him, their heads lowered and hands behind their backs, while he ignored them and ate was intensely uncomfortable. Had they eaten yet? He wanted to tell them to join him at the table and have some breakfast too, but doing so would only confuse and disturb them. The best future he saw was one in which he simply dismissed them – they quickly left at his gesture, though not without some subtle side-eye. Maybe he wasn’t as good at imitating Morden as he thought he was. In that case he’d better up his game quickly – Onyx was coming.

Alex tensed when Onyx entered the room, the last time they’d seen each other the powerful force mage had tried to kill him. He knew there was no way for Onyx to know who he was, and so he willed himself to relax and answered Onyx’s mumbled greeting with a friendly “good morning” of his own. He had no idea how Morden and Onyx interacted in private, but for now Onyx seemed perfectly content to just eat in silence. This should suit Alex just fine – unless Onyx knew something that would be of use to him? 

Unfortunately, the futures revealed that asking Onyx for what he’d done yesterday, or about potential spells and rituals, wouldn’t lead anywhere. Whatever it was Morden had done, he apparently hadn’t told his Chosen about it. There were no clues to be found in the house, neither Onyx nor Morden’s slaves seemed to know anything… The meeting with Fuegis was the only lead he had at the moment. It was too bad that he wouldn’t be able to make it there… unless?

“I’ll be meeting with Fuegis in Coimbra in about half an hour,” he said. “You know where that is, don’t you?”

Onyx threw him a look. “I’ve been there before.”

Alex nodded as if he’d known. “What is your plan for today?”

“Nothing much.”

“Well, then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to accompany me.” 

Onyx opened his mouth to object, but all futures of him doing so disappeared as quickly as they’d come. He still didn’t sound too happy when he said, “Yes, master.”

“You may prepare the gate once you’re done here,” Alex ordered, and now Onyx was genuinely confused. Morden did seem like the kind of person who usually preferred to make his own gates.

But again the only reply he gave was, “Yes, master.”

Alex grinned, maybe an apprentice that followed orders at least half of the time without constantly questioning them wasn’t all that bad.

~~~

Alex met Onyx in the garden ten minutes before 9 AM. Onyx still didn’t look too overjoyed to be accompanying his master but opened the gate at Alex’s signal without complaint. After checking the weather in Portugal Alex had put on a light blazer, which he thought completed his outfit nicely – and also helped to conceal the dagger he’d found. Sadly, there weren’t any guns or other weapons stored in the house, after all neither Morden nor Onyx had any need for such. He had however found a gatestone that would bring him back to the mansion and pocketed it, just in case.

They stepped through the gate and into a much warmer forest on the slope of a hill. Through the leaves Alex could see a city in the valley and confirmed through divination that there weren’t any people around. They were alone at the moment, but it wouldn’t take long before Fuegis would join them.

“So,” Onyx asked sullen. “What do you need me for?”

“You will see,” Alex replied cryptically. A smile played around his lips as Onyx’s frown deepened. He still didn’t voice any of his grievances, which confirmed to Alex that the way he acted wasn’t too far off from Morden’s normal behaviour.

The flickering futures clicked into place, and a gate began to form halfway across the clearing. Onyx moved to stand right at his shoulder, and Alex tried not to let any of his tension show. There was no future in which Onyx made any move to attack him, but he still didn’t like having him so close. At least he would be helpful to have around in case things got ugly. 

Someone appeared in the gate, and Alex willed himself to adopt a more relaxed and open posture, channelling Morden’s aura of assured confidence. From the way Fuegis looked at him, Alex realised that he wasn’t a friend of Morden’s. He was a little taller and broader than him, with short brown hair, tanned skin, and what seemed like a constant frown etched onto his face. He was an extremely powerful fire mage, and Alex did not like how easy it had been for him to find that out. He would have to tread very carefully from now on.

“Morden.” Fuegis nodded in greeting but made no move to come any closer.

“Fuegis.” Alex smiled. “Thank you for coming.”

“When I agreed to meet with you, I agreed to meet in private,” Fuegis said with a pointed look in Onyx’s direction. Onyx puffed up angrily. 

Alex carefully examined the possible futures, of which way too many ended in violence for his taste.

“Very well,” he said before things could escalate. He turned to address Onyx, “You are not needed here, you may leave.”

“But-“ Onyx objected.

“Today, please,” Alex interrupted, and Onyx closed his mouth. Alex was aware that he was making a rather erratic impression on Onyx, first ordering him to come along without explanation and then sending him away again immediately, but it couldn’t be helped. Fuegis wasn’t someone who liked having his demands denied.

Onyx clenched his teeth and obeyed, leaving Alex alone in the woods with a hostile Dark mage. Morden had asked Fuegis for a meeting, but Alex didn’t know why. This could end extremely badly, especially if the other mage found out that he didn’t possess the same magical power as Morden did. He would have to navigate their conversation carefully, figure out what it was Morden wanted, avoid acting too far out of character, and in the worst-case bluff Fuegis into surrender. Oh yeah, and he also had to find out whether this had anything to do with the body swap.

“So,” Fuegis said once Onyx had left. “You want me to support your proposal?” 

“Yes,” Alex replied as if he knew what Fuegis was talking about. “That is exactly what I want.”

~~~

Morden woke up slowly, feeling more well rested and relaxed than he had in years. He turned onto his back, sighed deeply, and enjoyed the warmth of the sunbeams on his skin. Something felt odd and unfamiliar, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about that just yet. Usually, he didn’t have as much time to stay in bed in the mornings as he always got up quite early… Wait. Why hadn’t his alarm gone off yet? He opened his eyes to check the time.

He sat up straight in an instant, taking in his surroundings in wide shock. The room he found himself in was most definitely not his bedroom, it was smaller and furnished more sparingly and – why was there a fox sitting in front of the bed?

Morden stared at the fox, who stared up right back at him. 

“Can I help you?” he asked and startled. Since when did he sound like that?

The fox blinked at him. 

“What is going on?” His voice, even though clearly not his own, was weirdly familiar. Maybe he still asleep and dreaming? It would explain how he’d moved from his home to this strange place, as well as the fox and the voice change. It didn’t feel like a dream, though. His life sight showed many people in the area and moving outside, he concluded that he had to be in a town or city.

Moving slowly he stood up, looked down and frowned. Had he always been this tall? And why was he dressed like _that_? The baggy t-shirt and sweatpants weren’t his style at all. Something about his body was off as well, everything felt bizarre and alien. The fox jumped up, and Morden couldn’t shake the impression that it was looking at him expectantly. Ignoring it for now he stumbled to the window and looked outside. 

Camden Market. 

Morden frowned and turned to leave the room, the fox following close on his heel. He stepped into a narrow corridor and opened the next door. He froze. Across the room, in the mirror above the sink, Verus was staring at him. His hair was mussed by sleep and stuck up in all directions, and he looked just as surprised as Morden felt. Morden moved closer – and so did Verus. It took Morden a moment until he realised that it wasn’t actually Verus in the mirror, but his own reflection.

_What the hell._

He inspected his face more closely, considered the changes to his voice and body, as well as the surroundings. It made no sense, and yet it was the only conclusion Morden came to: He and Verus had swapped bodies. How the hell had Verus done that? Morden liked to think of himself as knowledgeable and well versed in magic, and yet he had never heard of a spell or ritual capable of such a feat. There were myths, of course, but nothing concrete. And what motive did Verus have for this anyways?

Suddenly, the foxes life signature disappeared from where it’d been before and re-appeared at his feet. Morden jumped back and stared at it with surprise.

“You’re a blink fox.” 

The fox blinked at him and tilted its head with what Morden assumed was amusement. Why did Verus have a blink fox? Though well, he also was friends with a giant spider, so maybe a blink fox wasn’t all that unexpected. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know what is going on, would you?” he asked.

The fox blinked twice. 

Morden shook his head; he must be more shaken than he’d thought if he was talking to animals already. He had to find out what Verus had done – and how to reverse it. Even though he didn’t know what Verus could possibly hope to achieve through this, he didn’t like the thought of him controlling his body and running around in his house unsupervised. Who knew what kind of chaos he could cause.

“What?” he snapped at the fox who’d had the gall to poke his leg with its snout. It sat back offended at his rude tone, then disappeared and re-appeared somewhere else in the flat.

Morden sighed, he’d search for clues of what Verus had done in a moment, but first he needed proper clothes. He returned to the bedroom and looked through the wardrobe, appalled at its disorganised state. He automatically went for one of the suits but caught himself when he remembered that it probably wasn’t what Verus would wear on a normal day. While he didn’t intend for this charade to go on much longer, making sure nobody found out what had happened was in his best interest for now.

After some rummaging he settled on a pair of jeans and a simple black shirt. He went back to the bathroom for a brisk shower, and while he undressed absentmindedly wondered how Verus would feel about this. He himself did find the thought someone else controlling and seeing his body rather uncomfortable, but then again, it wasn’t as if he had anything to hide. And, he noted, neither did Verus.

The clothes were of excellent quality and fitted him perfectly. He took a comb and tried his best to bring his hair into order, before he ultimately decided that it didn’t look like Verus at all and ruffled it again. He gave himself a last look over in the mirror, all in all satisfied with his appearance. Not looking like himself would never not feel weird, however, the person he’d swapped bodies with being handsome as well brought at least some consolation. But he had wasted enough time for now.

He systematically searched the flat, ignoring the pushy blink fox. He had the feeling that it expected something from him, but he didn’t know what and wasn’t particularly invested in figuring it out either, he was busy. When his search of the flat turned up nothing he went downstairs and continued looking through the shop and the storerooms. Verus sure had a lot of stuff lying around; there was all the junk in the salesroom and the magical items in the back, as well as a very impressive weapons collection. Nothing that gave him any hints about what Verus had done, though.

The only thing that stood out to him was a golden medallion he found on a workbench. It was clearly magical, but he had no idea in what way. There was nothing hidden inside either, only two tarnished mirrors that each showed the shadowy outline of a person. Something about this item sparked his interest, but he couldn’t figure out what exactly. He put it back where he’d found it and moved on.

Just as he was about to give up, a persistent knock at the door demanded his attention. The life signature felt vaguely familiar, Morden was sure he’d seen it around Verus before. Maybe this person would be helpful in finding out what had happened? He opened the door and found himself confronted with a short woman, probably in her early twenties, with light brown hair and pale skin.

“Is there a reason for why you aren’t open yet, or are you just being lazy today?” she asked and pushed past him without even waiting for a reply.

“Uhm,” Morden said eloquently. He’d recognised the girl as Verus’ apprentice and was quite shocked at the way she talked to her master.

“My class was cancelled today, so since I was already up anyways I thought ‘Hey, why don’t I pay Alex a visit and give him a hand with the hard work?’,” she said, purposefully climbing the stairs to the flat.

Unsure how to proceed Morden followed her. He mentally went through all the information he had on her – Luna Mancuso, chance adept, played an important role in the fateweaver debacle and had generally been around whenever he’d met Verus – short, he didn’t know much. He’d have to be very careful around her to make sure she had no reason to suspect that he wasn’t her master. For now pretending to be Verus was his best strategy, he couldn’t let anybody find out how incredibly vulnerable his own body was at the moment.

Unfortunately, he had no idea how Verus would act around her – apparently he was just fine with her turning up unannounced, storming his flat, and calling him by his first name. No apprentice of Morden’s would ever act in such a disrespectful way, but then again, Verus wasn’t following traditions with her anyways; after all she was just an adept he’d somehow managed to sneak into the Light apprenticeship program. According to reports she was the person closest to Verus, which meant that if anyone knew about his plans, it was her.

Once they reached the flat the blink fox immediately turned its expectant look on Luna instead of him. 

“Hi Hermes,” she greeted, giving its head a pat, then turned to Morden. “Didn’t you feed him this morning?”

“Ah, no?” So that was what the fox – Hermes? – had wanted from him.

“So you didn’t even have breakfast yet?”

“No, I only got up recently.” It wasn’t necessarily a lie, depending on how you defined ‘recently’.

“Well then, I don’t have anything against a second breakfast,” she declared and stepped into the kitchen, looking at him as if she expected him to cook for them. 

Morden balked; he didn’t have time for this. Verus was running around in his body, doing who-knows-what with it, and he stood in a kitchen, an unruly apprentice and a hungry blink fox waiting for him to make them breakfast. But this girl was Verus’ closest friend, he couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to question her. She had to know something useful, and as long as she was convinced that he was Verus, she would tell him anything.

He opened the fridge and surveyed the options. It looked like Verus would need to buy groceries soon. He spotted a half-full pack of eggs and decided that scrambled eggs it was. He hadn’t cooked anything in years, but how hard could it be? Would the fox eat eggs? He contemplated it, then also grabbed some bacon. He found a frying pan in the second drawer he checked, glad that Luna was too busy telling him about the finale of a show she’d watched to notice his lack of orientation, and got to work at the stove.

He genuinely didn’t understand why Verus lived this way, a small flat in Camden without any servants, surely he could afford much better. The shop was an oddity as well, the trading of magical items made sense, but why did he sell all this junk to normals? Verus was quite the eccentric for sure.

The bacon was sizzling in the pan just fine as he tried to crack the first egg, which turned out to be significantly harder than he remembered. He managed to get it into the pan before anything dripped onto the counter, but not without dropping half of the eggshell into it as well. 

Luna snorted. “Now I’m not a Michelin-star chef, but I’m pretty sure that the shells aren’t supposed to be in there.” 

“I know that!” he snapped, irritated. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and lay the table?”

“Oh wow, you're sensitive today,” she said, clearly taken aback.

Morden forced himself to relax, this was a very stressful situation, but he had to get a grip of himself if he wanted to find out what was going on. 

He turned to Luna with a pleasant smile. “I apologise, I'm not feeling quite like myself.”

Her expression changed to one of compassion. “Rough night?”

“I suppose.” 

He’d actually slept extremely well, but she might think less of his unusual behaviour if she thought him overtired. He fished the eggshell out of the pan with a fork and successfully added the rest of the eggs, this time without any shells. Luna knew her way about the kitchen a lot better than him, quickly laid the table, and put two slices of bread in the toaster. Morden tried his best to keep up a friendly conversation with her, making sure to stay vague on everything he said so that she wouldn’t be able to catch him on a lie.

He felt somewhat proud when the scrambled eggs turned out edible, if a little burned in some parts and floppy in others. They ate together at the table, while Hermes enjoyed his portion of bacon on the floor. So far he hadn’t learned anything of note from their conversation, and so he decided to give it a little push in the right direction.

“I was thinking about our plan concerning Morden,” he said, regarding her attentively.

Luna’s eyebrows shot up. “We have a plan concerning Morden?”

“Well, don’t we?”

“Hey, the last thing you said was that him and Richard being buddies is a bad sign and that we should think of something eventually. So if you do have a plan now then please, I’m all ear.”

Morden frowned; this wasn’t what he’d expected. Either Verus hadn’t shared his plans with Luna – or he truly didn’t have any. Had he overestimated him? Perhaps the body swap wasn’t part of some grand scheme and had been an accident instead? It would explain why Verus hadn’t taken any precautions concerning the body Morden now inhabited and hadn’t even warned his closest friend about the dangerous Dark mage impersonating him. In a way it was relieving that he hadn’t fallen trap to Verus’ plan, but it also meant that everything he’d done here had been a waste of time.

“Alex?” A hint of concern ran in Luna’s voice. “Are you alright? You’re acting… strange today.”

Morden looked back at her, deliberating. It would be a great advantage to have her as a hostage when he confronted Verus. It would be so easy, too. She was looking at him with nothing but trust and wasn’t expecting an attack, he could knock her out before she even noticed that anything was amiss.

“Alex?”

Morden smiled ruefully. “You’re right, I’m really not feeling all that well.” 

“Oh. Should I get going, then?”

“That might be for the best, yes,” Morden said and rubbed his temples as if in pain. “I think I will go back to bed.”

“Alright, that sounds good like a good idea.” Luna got up and put their plates away.

He accompanied her to the door of the flat.

“I hope you’ll feel better soon,” she said. “Call me if you need anything, okay? Oh, and thanks for the food!”

“You’re welcome.” Morden watched her leave. He could handle Verus on his own.

~~~

The gate closed behind him, and out in the cool autumn air Morden was glad for the leather jacket he’d put on before leaving the house. He’d grabbed Verus’ wallet and keys as well, just in case. From the outside his mansion looked as peaceful as always, and he allowed himself to relax a fraction, though not by much, after all looks could be very deceptive. He didn’t have his key with him and so was left with no other option but to ring the doorbell. After a few minutes of waiting, a young blonde woman opened.

“I’m sorry, Master Morden isn’t receiving visitors at the moment. Shall I relay a message for you, Mr…?”

“Lisa,” Morden said. “You need to listen to me now. I understand that this is going to sound unbelievable, but –“

Suddenly a voice called out from the inside. “Who is it?”

Lisa turned around and stepped out of the way, giving Morden a view of Onyx on the stairs of the entrance hall. Their eyes met. Onyx’s face darkened.

“You!” he hissed and threateningly stepped closer, force blades forming in his hands. “The hell you think you’re doing here, Verus?!”

“I’m afraid there has been a rather unfortunate switch-up, so if you’d be so kind to restrain yourself and allow me to explain –“

“I don’t care,” Onyx sneered and flung a powerful force blade straight at Morden’s head.

Morden reinforced his shield just in time to stop it.

“What?” Onyx was clearly surprised to see Verus block his attack, but instead of stopping to reconsider he responded with a flurry of even stronger force projectiles.

Morden advanced slowly. “Onyx, listen to me, I’m not Verus, I –“

“Shut up!” Onyx roared, conjuring a long force blade. He charged.

“Stop right this instance!” Morden ordered, but Onyx wasn’t listening to him. Frustrated by Onyx’s refusal to listen and unwilling to let his tantrum go on further, Morden released a wave of death magic, its darkness blocked out the light for a moment, throwing Onyx halfway across the room and knocking him instantly unconscious.

Morden sighed, his Chosen really needed to learn to stop and think before he acted. Well, maybe this debacle would serve as a lesson for the future. He turned to Lisa and found that she had fled to the corner of the room, cowering on the floor. He was glad that she’d been outside of the blast radius, but he would have appreciated it if she’d stopped shaking in fear and talked to him.

Her reaction made sense, he supposed; after all she’d just witnessed a stranger defeat Onyx and force his way into the house. And, as Morden noted after scanning the mansion with his life sight, the man she currently believed to be her master wasn’t home. He sighed again, explaining the situation wouldn’t be easy.

~~~

Alex slumped the moment he was alone. This meeting had been one of the most stressful hours of his life, he’d had basically no information to work off on, had to keep constant track of all futures and make sure to always pick the options that kept Fuegis clueless and the potential violence away. This had been a way too dangerous waste of time. Like many fire mages, Fuegis had a very short fuse, and Alex was sure that if he hadn’t believed him to be an even more powerful mage, he would have ended up incinerated.

It had taken him all his nerves, wit, and skill, and then he hadn’t even learned anything of relevance. He’d quickly figured out that Morden wanted Fuegis to support his campaign for the Council, and while he wasn’t certain whether he’d managed to convince him, he now knew for sure that it hadn’t had anything to do with the body swap. Looking ahead, it seemed like he might be able to get the desired answers a directly from the source. Morden had come home.

After confirming that he wouldn’t be attacked on sight, Alex took the gatestone and channelled his magic. Morden met him out on the gravel driveway. Even though Alex had known what to expect, he still froze on the spot when he saw him. At least Morden reacted similarly, although he managed to hide his surprise better. They stared at each other for a long moment, seizing the other up thoroughly.

Seeing himself from the outside was weird, it felt incredibly unreal. As odd as the identical look was, the subtle differences were even more unsettling. Alex couldn’t put his finger on it exactly, but something about the way Morden carried his body was _different_. The disparity became even more obvious when he continued walking, moving with the same power and confidence as he always did. It was also weird to be shouted at by his own voice.

“Verus! What the hell did you do?”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you, actually,” Alex gave back. 

“Ask me?” Morden raised an eyebrow, the expression horribly out of place on Alex’s face. “Please, Verus. This is clearly your doing.”

“ _My_ doing?” 

“Yes, _your_ doing. Now, I don’t necessarily think that this was the outcome you’d intended; whatever you attempted misfired quite spectacularly, if I may say so. Despite the significant disruption this accident caused, I am willing to overlook it, provided you stop taking me for an idiot right now and tell me what you did.”

“Wait, you actually think that I did this somehow?” 

No, Alex would never get over talking to someone who looked and sounded exactly like he did. Or well, usually did. Right now he was still stuck in Morden’s body – who appeared just as uncomfortable with the situation as Alex was.

“Of course, after all I know for certain that I did nothing to cause this.”

“Are you sure you didn’t play around with some obscure ritual or something recently?” Alex asked. “You have a lot of weird equipment standing around in your house; maybe one of your hobbies backfired?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Morden sounded frustrated. “What about you? You do have a lot of stuff lying around as well.”

The way Morden spoke made it sound like he had gone through said stuff himself, which Alex did not like at all. Then again, he too had exhaustively searched Morden’s home, so he supposed that they were even in that regard.

“Yeah, but none of these things is a ‘body-swapper’ or whatever. I did receive a bunch of new items yesterday, but none of them would be capable of something like this… there was this one medallion which I didn’t recognise, but it didn’t do anything when I tried to use it.”

“You mean the one with the two shadowy silhouettes in the mirrors?” Morden asked.

“Yes, that’s –“ He paused. “Wait, did you just say ‘two’?”

“Yes. The halves each had a mirror inside, both showing the blurred reflection of a person.”

“Now that’s interesting,” Alex muttered, his mind racing. “When I opened it last night, there was only one person.”

Understanding flashed in Morden’s eyes. “So when you channelled your magic into it, something _did_ happen. Question is, did it also cause our current plight?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know, but since it’s the only lead we have, it seems worth investigating.”

“Well then,” Morden said and began to open a gate. “After you.” He gestured for Alex to step through.

“You’re coming too?” Alex was surprised. The gate would bring him back to London, not too far away from his usual gating spot.

“Of course. I dare say that I’m at least as invested in resolving this situation as you are.”

“Fair enough.”

Alex wasn’t too keen on spending any more time with Morden, but under the current circumstances working with him couldn’t be avoided. And who knew, maybe Morden would actually be helpful in figuring this out. Alex stepped through the gate and Morden followed closely behind. They quickly made their way through the busy streets, and Alex could only hope that nobody who knew him saw them together. Once they reached the shop Morden wordlessly handed him the key. Alex let them inside and went to retrieve the medallion.

“On the assumption that your fiddling with this item truly is behind this, one question remains,” Morden said while Alex examined said item in detail. “Why did you switch bodies with me?”

“I don’t know,” Alex said. “Who knows how this item works; all I did was channel some magic into it.”

True to what Morden had said there now were two silhouettes inside, unfortunately the mirrors were way too tarnished by old age to see any details. 

“Maybe the item’s magic is directed by the thoughts of the person using it?” Morden suggested.

Alex shook his head slowly. “That can’t be, I didn’t think about you at all yesterday.”

“Are you sure? Maybe your mind wandered before you fell asleep?”

“I was most definitely _not_ thinking of you in bed!” Alex objected decisively.

A teasing smirk played around Morden’s lips. “I wouldn't have expected you to, but I must say that the vehemence of your denial does wound me.”

“Seriously,” Alex muttered and demonstratively rolled his eyes. “Do you know what these symbols are?” he asked, only partially in an attempt to change the topic, and passed the medallion on to Morden.

Morden took it and inspected the markings closely. “They look somewhat familiar; I might have seen something like this before… but I’m afraid I cannot tell you where.”

“Hmm.”

Maybe Arachne would be able to recognise the symbols? However Alex really didn’t want to bring a Dark mage into her home unannounced and going there alone while he still looked like Morden didn’t seem like a good idea either. He filed the thought for later.

“Where did you get this from?” Morden asked and handed the medallion back to Alex. “Perhaps we can question its previous owner.”

Alex grimaced. “That won’t work, they’re dead.”

“You killed them for the items?” Morden sounded surprised and a little bit impressed.

“God no, what is it with you Dark mages? The previous owner was a Sensitive collector, and her children put the items up to auction after her very natural death. They won’t be able to help us with this, but maybe we can find out who owned the medallion before?”

Morden nodded. “I will put my intelligence officers on it. If you might excuse me, I must retrieve my phone.”

Alex pulled Morden’s phone from his pocket and held it out to him. Morden looked at it, then back at Alex, clearly realising that this meant that Alex had gone through it.

“Well,” he said. “I suppose that speeds things up a bit. Coming to think of it, it would probably better if you were the one who called, after all you are currently in the possession of my voice.”

Alex could hardly argue with that, and so he readily allowed Morden to guide him through the phone call with the head of his intelligence network. He described the medallion to the woman on the other end in detail, and she assured him that she would be on it right away. He returned the phone to Morden once he finished the call.

“I don’t think we will have to wait for long, Moire is quite efficient,” Morden said. “Now, we could continue to sit here in this lovely storage room, or you could invite me upstairs for a cup of tea.”

Alex hesitated. He didn’t want to invite Morden into his home, and he really didn’t want to have tea with him either. However, he knew that, even though they were forced to work together for now, things could turn ugly very fast if he upset Morden. And besides, he had been inside his flat already anyways.

~~~

Never in a million years would Alex have expected to be sitting at his kitchen table with Morden, drinking tea and eating biscuits from the previously unopened variety pack he’d found. Morden seemed to prefer the ones with chocolate. Alex still hadn’t gotten used to the way they now looked, and every time either of them opened their mouths and talked in the other one’s voice things got even more confusing. This day would go down as one of the strangest in his life, that was for sure.

“So,” Morden said, breaking the silence. “I heard you met with Fuegis this morning?”

Alex huffed. “Yeah, I did. I thought that it might help me find out what had happened.”

“Did he suspect that anything was amiss?”

“I don’t think so. It was still pretty stressful, though.”

“Tell me about it,” Morden ordered. “And do be precise, please.”

Alex considered refusing Morden’s request for a moment, he wasn’t interested in helping him with his plans, but eventually decided that it wouldn’t be worth antagonising him over. Morden listened to his recount of the meeting attentively, only interrupting to ask for clarification and details.

“I’m impressed, Verus. You handled that very well,” Morden said once he’d finished his tale. “Somebody with your talent…”

“Forget it, I’m not going to work for you,” Alex interrupted.

“Are you certain?” Morden pressed. “I do implore you to at least give it the consideration it deserves.”

“I have, my answer stands.”

Alex deliberately held Morden’s gaze, trying to convey determination without letting any of his nervosity show. He really hated how Morden’s control made it so difficult to predict his actions. Finally, Morden broke the tension with a smile.

“A pity.” He sighed. “But well, you do know where to find me, should your answer change.”

Alex snorted. “Sure, in case I lose my mind, you’ll be the first to know.”

“You do take yourself for very funny, don’t you?”

Morden’s tone was pleasant and relaxed, but Alex still recognised the hint for what it was. He decided to change the topic and cleared his throat.

“How did you explain this-” He gestured around. “-to Onyx and the others?”

“I did try to tell Onyx. Unfortunately, he was so dead set on killing you that I had to knock him out.”

Alex couldn’t hold back a short laugh. “Does that mean you’re finally ready accept that it is a problem?”

“Well, I do genuinely hope that it is not going to be my problem for much longer.”

“As little as I’m looking forward to your psychotic Chosen attacking me again, I have to agree,” Alex said. “Having him obey me and calling me ‘master’ sure was a nice switch up, though.”

Morden tilted his head. “Unlike your own apprentice, you mean?”

“What are you getting at?”

“Miss Mancuso came over earlier today, and I must say that her conduct towards her master did surprise me.”

Alex’s blood ran cold. “What did you do to her?!”

“By god, Verus, who do you take me for?” Morden sounded indignant. “I did not harm a hair on your precious apprentice’s head, I assure you. I merely listened to her rant about a certain TV shows’ horribly written ending and made her breakfast.”

“You made her breakfast?” Alex asked with disbelief.

Morden shrugged. “I was trying to gather information from her.”

“And, what did you learn?”

“Nothing much. I overestimated you.”

Alex set on to reply but stopped when he saw that the waiting was about to be over. Five seconds later Morden’s phone _pinged_. He pulled it out and read Moire’s message, a frown on his face. Alex checked what would happen if he leaned over Morden’s shoulder and jerked back in surprise. 

“You were the one who sold the medallion to the collector?!”

Morden nodded slowly. “That appears to be the case, yes. The description in this file does match the item in front of us perfectly, and it is my handwriting… however, it makes no mention of any silhouettes within the mirrors but describes them merely as tarnished.”

“Why didn’t you recognise it?”

“It was eight years ago, Verus,” Morden reminded.

“Alright,” Alex conceded. “Let me summarise: you found the medallion and without knowing what it was channelled your magic into it… which caused the first silhouette in the mirror to appear. You sold it to the collector, and now, eight years later, I buy it from her, channel my magic into it as well, the second silhouette appears… and we switch bodies.”

“That sounds about right, yes.”

Alex took a deep breath. “Good. So how do we reverse it? Maybe we need to channel our magic into it again?”

“That would make sense,” Morden agreed. “Alright. Let’s not waste any more time then.” He reached out for the medallion, but Alex stopped him.

“Wait! What if it has to be done in a specific order?”

Morden dropped his hand. “Well, does it?”

“How would I know that?” Alex asked irritated.

“You’re the diviner, look into the future.”

“Fine,” Alex said. “Be quiet, then.”

To his surprise Morden actually kept quiet after that, and so Alex turned his attention on the different paths ahead. Unfortunately, no matter which order they’d tried it in, nothing happened. He relayed his findings to Morden.

“So you’re saying we can’t reverse the switch-up this way?” he asked.

“I mean, it didn’t happen instantly before either, right?” Alex argued. “Maybe we have to sleep on it overnight again.”

“Quite likely, yes.” Outwardly Morden appeared calm, but Alex noticed the underlying frustration in his voice. “However, that leaves us with the same problem as before. Who of us has to channel their magic first?”

~~~

“Maybe the order doesn’t actually matter?” Alex suggested.

“We’ve been over that already; it’s impossible to know.” Morden had been holding up well so far, but slowly his nerves too were turning raw, and his carefully kept composure frayed at the edges.

They’d been arguing back and forth over the past hour, debating different approaches, considering them from all sides, discussing every possible line of argument. And yet their conversation kept turning in circles, and the futility of all their reasoning became more and more obvious. They simply didn’t have enough information about the medallion and its powers. Not even Morden’s impressive intelligence network had been able to find anything.

Alex slumped back in his chair. “This isn’t leading anywhere.”

“I agree.” Morden too looked rather exhausted. “Well, I suppose there is no other option. We will simply have to try our luck.”

“And if we do it wrong?”

“What is the worst that could happen? That we are stuck in the wrong bodies?” Morden smiled sardonically. 

“True, it probably can’t get much worse.” Alex picked up the medallion from the table and offered it to Morden. “Alright then, will you do the honours?”

Morden hesitated for a moment, then he accepted the medallion. “Very well.”

He closed his hand around it for a moment, and Alex felt a short pulse of magic. Then Morden passed it back to him. 

“Well, here goes nothing.” Alex channelled his magic into the medallion. “And now we wait.”

“Now we wait,” Morden echoed. “If everything goes well, we should wake up in our correct bodies tomorrow.”

“Speaking of that... Where are we going to sleep tonight? I guess you probably won’t want me alone in your mansion as much as don’t want you in my flat.”

“Hmm.” Morden rested his chin on a hand in thought. “I honestly don’t want you to carry my body around anywhere without me in general.”

“As weird as it is to see you like this, I agree.” Alex didn’t like the thought of spending the day around Morden, but having him walk around in his body would be even worse. Luna had already been fooled by it, and even though she’d been miraculously unharmed, Alex couldn’t take such a risk again.

“You are welcome to stay at my mansion,” Morden offered generously.

“Thanks, but I’d prefer not to,” Alex gave back stiffly.

“I am not going to sleep on your couch.”

“My flat might not be able to compete with your grand mansion, but I do have a guest room, you know.”

Morden regarded him silently. Alex was aware that if Morden decided to push it, there was nothing he could do to stop him. Luckily, it seemed like Morden was a little hesitant to attack his own body and therefore a lot more open to discussion.

“Alright,” he conceded. “It’s not like I’m going to get anything done today anyways.”

“Okay.” Alex was surprised, he hadn’t expected Morden to give in so quickly. He was very glad that he didn’t have to go back to the Dark mage’s mansion, however he wasn’t too happy to have him staying with him either. “What are we going to do in the meantime, then?”

“Don’t you have a shop to run?”

“Why, are you volunteering to man the counter?” Alex shot back.

Morden looked at him incredulously. “No.”

“Well, then it looks like the shop will have to stay closed today.”

~~~

They ended up not doing much all day. Morden had relocated from the kitchen to the living room, where he stayed for most of the day, reading and typing away on his phone, keeping up with whatever work he had to do by virtual means. Alex used the time to re-organise the storage room, a job he’d been putting off for a while now. Given how bad his day had been so far, the unpleasant task almost felt like a welcome respite.

In the evening he ordered take-out, and they ate the spicy curry together in the kitchen. Hermes showed up again and demanded food, and Morden told Alex about how the blink fox had surprised him in the morning. In turn Alex gave Morden vague rundown of how he and Hermes had met, and they managed to keep up a trivial conversation for a while. They went to bed early.

~~~

With the Dark mage in the room next door, it had taken Alex a long time until he’d been able to relax enough to fall asleep, and so the sun was already up high when he awoke on the next morning. At first he’d been surprised to find himself in in his guest room, but then the memories of the past day rushed back in, and he felt himself stagger in relief. The switch had worked, he had his body back. He wanted to check whether Morden was all back to normal too, but soon noticed that he couldn’t find him.

Morden was gone, and the medallion as well. He must have gotten up early and left without waiting for Alex to wake up, taking the medallion with him. He had left him a note, though. Alex padded into the living room and picked it up from the low couch table.

_Verus,  
I apologise for leaving like this without proper farewell, but I am afraid there are pressing matters I must take care of. Do not worry about the medallion, I will make sure to see it destroyed. I would like to encourage you again to reconsider your position on my offer. Things are already in motion, and it won’t be long now until they will come to a head. You know where to find me.  
Take care,  
Morden_

Next to the note lay the polished red gatestone Alex had found in the mansion. He picked it up with a frown, debating whether or not he should just throw it out on the street. In the end he settled on hiding it at the bottom of his gatestone collection. You never knew when it might come in handy.


End file.
